Berlin's Matt Carasiti Headed To Japan, Eager For New Start

Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant

Berlin's Matt Carasiti was with the Yard Goats when they played their first game in Connecticut in Norwich in 2016. On Tuesday. the Chicago Cubs announced that his next stop as a professional pitcher would be in Japan.

Berlin's Matt Carasiti was with the Yard Goats when they played their first game in Connecticut in Norwich in 2016. On Tuesday. the Chicago Cubs announced that his next stop as a professional pitcher would be in Japan. (Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant)

Matt Carasiti’s professional baseball career took an unexpected detour last summer when the Colorado Rockies, the organization he’d grown up with, traded him to the Chicago Cubs.

But Carasiti, the former Berlin High standout, is about to begin an entirely different type of journey.

The Cubs released Carasiti, who was on their 40-man roster, and he signed a contract with the Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan on Friday. The Cubs are expected to receive a payment for allowing Carasiti to go to Japan.

“I didn’t get called up at the end of the year [by the Cubs] and in my head I thought I was going to be a free agent,” Carasiti said Tuesday. “It came down to the last couple of days. I had not been placed on the 40-man roster. And then I started getting calls from my agent about a lot of interest [in him] from Japan. In my head I’m thinking, this is something I should look into.

“At the last second, the Cubs put me on the roster. But I told my agent that I might still want to go to Japan and I asked him to see if it might be possible to be released from he 40-man [roster] and take my chances in Japan. He talked to the Cubs. They were super cool about it. And they let me go for a buyout. I loved my time with their organization. I had a blast. It was nothing against the Cubs. I just felt like I might have a chance over there to make some money.”

Carasiti joins the Central League club on a one-year deal estimated at $700,000.

“He can change speeds and because he is smart enough to know when to challenge hitters and when to work carefully, he keeps runs off the board,” said Masayuki “Michael” Okumura, the Swallows’ international director.

Carasiti, who pitched at St. John’s, was acquired from the Rockies for lefthander Zac Rosscup on June 26. Before the deal, he had struck out 54 in 39 innings with Triple A Albuquerque and his fastball had been clocked at 97 mph.

Carasiti, 26, made his major league debut with the Rockies in 2016, appearing in 19 games after his late summer callup from Triple A. He was originally a sixth-round pick by the Rockies in 2012 and transitioned to the bullpen in 2014 where he immediately became one of the top closers in Colorado’s minor-league organization.

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Last season, he compiled a 2.37 ERA with 13 saves and 43 strikeouts in 30.1 innings with the Albuquerque Isotopes before he was dealt to the Cubs.

"I feel like I’m going to be able to pitch in a closing role [in Japan],” Carasiti said. “Maybe I can do what I do there for a couple of years and then come back [to the USA] and hopefully get on a big league roster somewhere.”

Carasiti started the 2016 season with the Double A Yard Goats and recorded a league-best 29 saves and 2.31 ERA in 38 appearances before he was recalled to Triple A on July 25 of that season.

In 44 appearances with Hartford and Albuquerque, Carasiti was 0-2 with 31 saves, a 1.96 ERA (46.0 IP, 10 ER), nine walks and 48 strikeouts. After his recall to Triple A, he pitched seven scoreless innings with two hits, two walks and five strikeouts in six appearances. So the Rockies decided to recall him.

Carasiti allowed two runs in his major league debut against the Phillies and his first few weeks in the majors were not impressive. He allowed at least one run in nine of his first 11 appearances and finished with a 9.19 ERA.

“At this point of my career, I’m open to anything,” Carasiti said. “The last few years have opened my eyes in terms of what a business baseball is. It’s how it is. I don’t have any control as a player. So from the business side of things, I told myself if I’m going to be in a business then I should be a businessman. I wanted to start making some money and this was my opportunity to do so. I wanted to take it. I think I’m going to love it. But if for some reason I don’t, it’s only one year and I’ll just look at it as if I went on an adventure.”

Carasiti, who was married a couple of weeks ago, will be leaving for Japan at the end of January.

“Who knows, maybe in a couple of years I will be back or maybe I will stay there and play the remainder of my career in Japan. Either way, I am fine with it,” Carasiti said.